Friday, September 11, 2009

Beaute Mineral! [Official Makeup sponsor of Ecologique: FGF!]

Ecologique: FGF is proud to announce its official make-up sponsor, Beaute Mineral. This company, based out of Portland, Oregon, is all for pure, natural beauty.

Beaute Mineral specializes in completely chemical-free, oil-free, fragrance-free, talc-free, preservative-free, bismuth oxychloride-free, and filler-free, mineral-based makeups. Not only is their makeup non-comedogenic, promoting healthy skin, the product is also eco-friendly using minimal packaging, and with proper storage and care, the mineral powder never goes bad!

We asked Beaute Mineral owner, Amy Phillips, a little
about her background and what gets her revved up about ethical mineral makeup!

Ecologique: "What inspired you to create this line of mineral makeup?"

Amy: "Growing up in Hong Kong, where the beauty emphasis is on looking & being natural and on having beautiful skin, makeup was almost a dirty word, most women want[ed] to wear makeup, but they worries that the makeup might cause problems to their skin. Their worry is valid, as most Asian makeup brands put heavy doses of fragrance in their products; that, along with a lot of other non-natural ingredients, usually cause a lot of irritations to sensitive skin.

"Most of my Asian friends hardly wear any makeup because they have had makeup wrecking their beautiful skin; and the few who do wear makeup are struggling with the products they have. That was what inspired me to create a line of cosmetics that a) is made with natural ingredients; b) won’t cause irritation or skin problems; c) looks and feels natural, like you have no makeup on, just having gorgeous skin. After tons of studying, researches, trial and error, brain power and just plain hard work, Beauté Minéral was born."

Ecologique: "So, how is it that you got interested in cosmetics?"

Amy: "My background is actually on the IT side – I proud myself for being the one of the non-geeky-looking programmers. I learned about cosmetics and beauty products from reading tons of beauty books, researching in any format I can, and playing with makeup any chance I have."

Ecologique: "What personal influences do you lend to Beaute Mineral?"

Amy: "I draw inspirations from the makeup artistry greats like Kevyn Aucoin and Shu Uemura, as well as from Mother Nature who provides the most beautiful color palettes imaginable. I also put a lot of my experience growing up in different beauty cultures into my products. My research & study in Aromatherapy will be the basis of an upcoming skin care line."

Ecologique: "Tell us more about your products and the ethical and sustainable practices behind them"

Amy: "Each Beauté Minéral product is hand-crafted with love and care. I firmly believe that if it is called 'mineral makeup', it should consist of “minerals” only, not things like oils, preservatives, fragrances and starches. Beauté Minéral products do not have fancy packaging, because I believe resources should be spent on what goes into the products, not the outside of the products--the lesser the packaging, the better for the environment."

"Beauté Minéral products are also complete cruelty-free. We don’t test our products on animals, and we take great care to make sure our raw ingredients have not been tested on animals either. Beauté Minéral is called the Worry-free Makeup because you don’t have to worry about the ethics behind the brand and the ingredients in the products. And once you put the makeup on, you can forget about it ..at least until it’s time to take it off."

You can see Amy's Beaute Mineral on all the models who will be walking our runway on October 17th at Onyx/Thin. Amy was also kind enough to donate a gift bag full of her green goodies to our charity auction at Ecologique. For more info on Beaute Mineral, please visit their website.